A variety of physical conditions can be treated by implanting a therapeutic medical device, such as a prosthetic, into a patient. Several implantable medical devices require the use of a guide wire for deployment into the patient. Typically, the guide wire is inserted into the patient to guide the medical device to a desired treatment site, and oftentimes, ensures that the implantable device is in the desire orientation and/or configuration. The therapeutic medical device is navigated over or along the guide wire to implant the medical device at the desired location within the patient.
One location of the body where prosthetic implantation is useful as a corrective treatment is in the spinal column. Developmental irregularities, trauma, tumors, stress and degenerative wear can cause defects in the spinal column for which surgical intervention is necessary. Some of the more common defects of the spinal column include vertebral compression fractures, degeneration or disruption of an intervertebral disc and intervertebral disc herniation. These and other pathologies of the spine are often treated with implants or prosthetics that can restore vertebral column height, immobilize or fuse adjacent vertebral bones, or function to provide flexibility and restore natural movement of the spinal column.
In the past, spinal corrective surgeries often required open invasive procedures in order to access and implant devices into the spine. Recently, however, there have been several advances in minimally invasive surgical techniques, which provide many benefits over the open invasive procedures. Along with such advancements has come the development of several minimally invasive implantable spinal devices. Examples of such device can be found in co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/034,853, filed Feb. 21, 2008 and Ser. No. 11/464,782, filed Aug. 15, 2006, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.